"It not that you win or lose, it's how you played the game."

This famous quote by legendary sports writer Grantland Rice has been heard millions of times over various of situations. By no means is cooking a game (except Guy's Grocery Games on the Food Network), but a chef can certainly apply that "put your best foot forward" mentality to anything in the kitchen.

The chefs who arrived this past weekend at the the Gold Medal Plates national competition, dubbed the Canadian Culinary Championships--an event months in the making, with regional competitions in 11 different Canadian cities throughout the fall, before the regions’ respective champions meet in the Okanagan for the final cook-off--came from all different backgrounds. Among them were several hotel chefs, like Regina's Milton Rebello; Edmonton's Ryan O'Flynn, a chef instructor; Luc Jean, of Red River College in Winnipeg; well-known Toronto chef John Horne of Canoe; Renée Lavallée from Halifax, the competition's sole female competitor; and, of course, Montreal chef and newly annointed Food Network Canada personality, Antonio Park.

Regardless of what was being plated, coming out on top in the CCC requires consistency in refined flavour, uniqueness and balance across hundreds of plates. It’s not an easy task for a dining room with 100 seats, let alone an unfamiliar event space packed to brim with over 500 hundred people waiting in long lineups. 

There were creative dishes abound over the two days. Calgary chef Dave Bohati paired smoke foie gras with cured yellowfin tuna in one corner, while Saskatoon's Chris Hill offered lamb sirloin alongside a camelina-oil-poached baby carrot and “textures” in another. The dishes were as different as apples and oranges. Some were simply satisfying, others were outstanding, but all interesting in concept.

As a spectator, the most interesting thing about the weekend was the juxtaposition.

There were a lot of jitters between the chefs. Culinary professionals concentrated on their dishes with their heads-down, sweating and aiming for perfection with hardly a moment's break, plating hundreds of dishes for everyone in the room, including the discerning judges.

For event-goers, it was a bit of a different story, with merry glass clinking between fancily dressed attendees nibbling on canapes.

I'm not so sure everyone noticed the small touches on a dish like Lavallée's plate, an homage to a summer meal in Halifax with crab roll and grandma's potato salad, but after all, they were there to have fun. It was really the judging panel that had their work cut out for them.

The panel consists of notable food media (mostly food critics and/or published authors) from each of the represented cities including individuals like Karl Wells of St. John's, Amy Jo Ehman of Saskatoon and John Gilchrist of Calgary. All led by event head, James Chatto.

Posts about this competition were all over social media this weekend (#CCC2015). Here's a little look at what the competing chefs go through over two very high-stress days.